New World New Me
by suitsyou
Summary: Sometimes it takes the World falling apart, for your world to come together. Zombie!AU
1. Prolouge

Prologue

It was quiet.

Not the serene silence that happens when you are alone with your own thoughts in your own space, but the tense, awkward silence that happens when you're in a room full of people with nothing to say. The only sounds came from the quite clinking of silverware against fine porcelain and the soft chewing sounds of careful, polite bites. It was just a normal dinner at the Fabray household. It was painful.

Judy cleared her throat around her meticulously chewed food. Quinn knew she was going to attempt to begin a conversation. Quinn just hoped it wasn't with her.

"So Quinnie how was school today?" Her faux cheery voice almost made Quinn gag. It was one thing to have a miserable home life; it was another to have a miserable home life while pretending everything was perfect.

"It was fine mother. Same as always." Quinn tried to sound engaged to appease her mother if nothing else, but she knew she fell short.

"How are your grades looking?" This time it was her father that took a stab at small talk. Frankly Quinn was still trying to get used to seeing him around again. After her parents separated, she thought for sure her father would be a distant figure from then on. To her surprise, after a few months of separation her mother thought he should start having dinner with them again to "feel like a real family" or whatever. Quinn knew the real reason, without Russell around Judy realized she actually had to do adult things like get a job and pay bills. All Judy really wanted to do was sit in her garden and drink wine. Russell had realized that without a wife and daughter to set particularly high expectations on, he was pretty lonely and Quinn knew from personal experience that Russell Fabray was not good company. It didn't take long for him to want his old, reliable and completely compliant family back. They both wanted everything back to normal. So now they were in this weird almost back together stage but they hadn't really solved any of the underlining issues in the house. It made everything tense as a stretched rubber band.

"I'm sure they will be up to par. Mid-Terms went well."

"Good."

They did not speak anymore. Well they didn't speak to Quinn anymore. Her parents began small talk about the weather and work and other adult things. Quinn finished eating as quickly as was polite. She asked to be excused and left the table.

In her room, there was the silence that Quinn preferred. The silence here had no expectations and conditions, just quiet acceptance. She thought about texting Santana or Brittany, but quickly decided against it. She just wanted to lay here and be alone. She was starting to get tired of normal.

It was hard to think with all the noise.

Brittany had gotten used to it though. After living with 3 sisters and 2 brothers most of her life, she had no choice. Dinner was always an affair at the Pierce household. Everyone was talking all at once. It was hard to keep track of any of the conversations. Brittany tried though. Cooper had won his soccer game yesterday, and Becca got an A on that Algebra test she was worried about, Alex and Sam wanted to go to the arcade tomorrow to play this really cool new video game called Viking Zombies 4, and Andy was starting to crawl. Brittany ran through all of this in her head because she liked to keep up with what was going on with her siblings; it was just so many of them it was hard to keep it all straight. Her younger siblings loved to tell her everything that was going on in their lives and it was Brittany's big sisterly duty to listen.

"Britt, will you please take us to the arcade Thursday?"

"Yea, please Britt!" That was Alex and Sam and they were giving her their patented identical puppy dog look. They really wanted to go. Brittany could never say no to the twins. They were too cute.

"Sure! I'll take you after Glee practice," At this Cooper snorted. Cooper was fourteen, and though he was just a lowly freshman even he knew that glee was definitely not cool. Brittney ignored him and continued, "And then I'll come and get you when you're done."

Even though Brittany was the big sister, she seldom felt like she was. She held no real authority over her younger siblings. If they minded what she said it wasn't because they respected her, it was because they would rather have her as a babysitter than those other mean old ladies her mom hired. Brittany was never the authoritative type. Her parents trusted her to make sure her siblings were all fed and didn't kill themselves before her mom got home from work, but if her parents were going away for a weekend they would usually hire a babysitter so it wasn't so "taxing" on Brittany. Brittany knew what they meant; they didn't think that if they went away for a weekend the house would still be standing when they got back.

"So how did your mid-terms go, Brittany?" Her father did not move from behind the newspaper he was engrossed in. He knew just as well as she did 'how mid-terms went.' She didn't know why they kept asking her, Brittney knew what she wanted to do with her life and it had nothing to do with Chemistry or Algebra.

She shrugged noncommittally.

"Brittney, you need to try harder in school if you want a good job one day." Her dad gave her a fatherly gaze, one that said 'I expect you to be meeting the expectations I'm expecting you to expect'. Brittany turned her own gaze down to the picture she was making with her mashed potatoes and peas. The clouds could use a little more gravy.

"I'll try harder." Brittney had told them time and time again that she wanted to be a dancer. They just told her to try harder in school, but she knew that school just wasn't her thing.

Brittany could tell how people felt about her. Most people thought she was pretty dumb. Brittany knew she wasn't dumb, her brain just worked different than most people. Nothing was wrong with that. She tried not to let what people thought of her get her down and for the most part she succeeded. It was only when those people she thought knew her called her dumb that she got upset. She wasn't dumb and she didn't know why other people couldn't see that.

After dinner, she helped her mom clean up. Her mom sang while she washed the dishes. She loved when her mom sang. She could almost dance to it. Andy babbled happily in his high- chair. Brittany thought that Andy probably liked when mom sang too. Brittany reached for another stack of plates to put away and smiled at her mom. Her mom beamed back at her.

"Karen! Have you heard about this? Darn thugs," her dad called from the family room. Brittany's dad always watched the news after dinner. Brittany could usually hear the sounds of disapproval at the latest string of bike thefts or random vandalism in the area. It always reminded Brittney of the sounds that teachers made whenever she tried to answer a question in class.

"No, what happened?" her mother continued scrubbing the cup in her hand. Brittney dried a plate while making silly faces at Andy. She was not really interested in the latest string of petty theft; she really thought her dad was overreacting a bit. Nothing interesting really ever happened. It was usually just the same-old stuff.

The house was empty.

Santana tried not to let it get to her. Her parents were very busy people. They worked hard to provide for Santana and get her everything she could ever want. The shoes, the clothes, the cars, she had all that and more. So, she felt she shouldn't complain about the empty house or the hollow feeling she gets in her gut at times like these. If she was honest with herself, Santana knew she would trade in all the designer labels for more time with her parents.

Why couldn't her parents have at least had another kid? Really was that too much to ask for. Brittany had like 20 siblings. Her parents could manage one more kid.

Santana shuffled into the kitchen and headed straight for the fridge. The kitchen was pleasant and sparkling, with all its modern appliances and open counters space. It had a welcoming feeling to it, but you could tell it wasn't used often. It felt like those tour homes realty companies have. Santana rummaged around the refrigerator for something edible. The pizza from four days ago looked dry as a bone and the Chinese food from last week had something growing on it. Santana went with a leftover sub-sandwich. Santana doesn't exactly remember when she got the sandwich, but it looked edible.

Dinner time at the Lopez house is usually the worst time of day for Santana; it's when she feels the most alone. Most days she could get Brittany to come over to distract her from the empty house, but Brittany had her own family to spend time with and she couldn't be here every day. She took her sandwich to the living room so she could use the television as a distraction. She flicked through the channels until she gets to the news. Not many 17-year-olds watched the news, but Santana does so regularly. It was a habit left over from spending so much time with her abuela when she was younger. Her abuela watched the news every night and Santana felt like her day wasn't complete without at least tuning into the weather report.

_"Tonight we have shocking reports from around the Lima area. What is thought to be a gang of youths, is terrorizing East Lima with ghastly graffiti over many public buildings. "_

_ "We'll have more here on Channel 5 news."_

Santana shook her head. The "ghastly graffiti" was a few murals of scenes from Breaking Bad. They actually were pretty good. Lima did not have much real crime and that made the local news station desperate for any small scandal they could blow completely out of proportion. Santana watched the local news to see how well the anchors could spin Lima's few miniscule problems into ones people with soft heads actually cared about. She sat and watched for twenty more minutes before she decided that she has had quite enough news for one night and turned off the television.

She looked at the clock and decided to head upstairs for a quick shower and then bed to end this exceedingly boring and disappointingly average day. Santana really couldn't help but wish something exciting would happen around here.


	2. Hooked on A Feeling

Chapter 1(Hooked on a Feeling)

Santana walked into McKinley already on full bitch mode.

"Move out of the way Paula Deen, some of us are trying to walk through the halls." The girl was not really in Santana's way nor was she fat, but she ran away in the opposite direction tears obviously welling up in her eyes.

"Yo, Santana what's shakin' girl." Puck appeared from behind her, casually tossing his arm around her shoulders.

"Off me jock strap, before I cut you." Santana glared at him and his stupid Mohawk (today it looked especially stupid). Santana really was in no mood for stupid boys today.

Puck wisely chose to remove his vulnerable limb before he lost it. Santana was never exactly in a cheerful mood, but in Puck's opinion today seemed to be especially uncheerful.

"What crawled up you and died today?" Puck questioned, glancing her way to take in her exceptionally standoff-ish body language. It was a good thing he was looking her way to see the shift in her stance and the swing of her arm. Puck ducked out of reach of Santana's incoming fist. Now Puck was legitimately worried about his wellbeing and Santana's mental state.

"I'm just not in the mood for any bullshit today," Santana huffed out before striding away from a concerned Puck. Santana really didn't know what was up with her. Something just seemed really off today. She woke up weary and tense, as if she hadn't gotten a good night's sleep at all and she could feel something dark scratching at the bottom of her stomach. Something bad was going to happen soon, she could feel it. All she could really hope for now is that the school day passed quickly and without incident.

But by third period Santana knew that her prayers had indeed not been answered and by the time sixth period rolled around, she was sure that today was some great deity's way of punishing her for calling that one girl Paula Deen. Everyone was getting on her nerves today. She had gotten a C on her Math test (really what the hell was a logarithm anyway). In Glee Rachel Berry seemed to have the need to talk more than normal, if that could be conceived, about what solos she should get at Regionals. Coach Sylvester had of course been displeased by the Cheerios' flawless performance and made them do jumping jacks on one leg for thirty minutes straight making it one of Santana's least favorite Cheerios practice ever.

"Well that sucked man tits," Santana threw her bag onto the locker room bench before bodily flopping down beside it. Her left leg was throbbing after that practice.

"Have you ever licked a man tit? It's like super weird, but not in a bad way," Brittany supplied wistfully while rummaging through her own gym bag.

"Brittany please, I would rather not puke all over my clothes," Santana shook her head as she kicked off her shoes. "This whole day has been utter shit! I'm going to go home and play pointlessly violent video games until I pass out on the couch. You wanna come over and hang out?"

"I would San, but my mom and dad are working late tonight and need me to watch the twins and pick up Andy from daycare." Brittany gave her an apologetic shrug, "I already said I would watch them and stuff."

"Why not just make Cooper watch them? He's like 14 and probably only has lame freshman crap to do." Santana stood and smoothly unzipped and pulled down her Cheerios skirt before pulling her top over her head, "What's the point in having a little brother if not to make him do all the stuff you don't want to do?"

Brittany grinned at Santana's state of undress. "Cooper has a soccer game tonight and plus," Brittany paused to catch the towel Santana threw at her when she noticed her leering, "I like watching Andy and the twins. Andy is always really good and hardly cries, and the twins are super smart and like really chill for kids their age."

Santana snorted at Brittany's description of her twin sisters. "Yeah they always have really good feedback on the newest video games. How do they have time to play all those video games anyway?"

"I don't know. But then again, there are two of them so you know I guess it only takes half the time," Brittany shrugged. Santana chuckled and shook her head. That was probably the first time she had laughed all day.

"Yeah I guess. Well looks like I'm on my own tonight," Santana's smile dropped into something notably sadder.

"Hey we'll hang out tomorrow. I promise," Brittany beamed. Santana pull her lips back into a smile at Brittany's assertion.

"Good."

When Santana got home she decided to order a pizza instead of looking at the depressingly empty refrigerator. She had just gotten into her gaming groove when the pizza dude showed up. Left 4 Dead would have to wait until after she finished her pizza. Santana decided to turn on the news while she ate. Maybe something interesting was happening in the world somewhere.

_"Tonight we have shocking reports coming in from Fredrick, Maryland about some absolutely vicious attacks by malicious mobs. The mobs have seized various people and not only physical pummel victims, but it seems they are also…eating their victims. That is correct folks; there are numerous reports of cannibalism among these wild mobs. These attacks seem to have no rhyme or reason and the perpetrators of these attacks show no remorse or even acknowledgement of their crimes. We warn that the following scenes can be disturbing."_

_There is footage of crowds of people in the street, many of them chasing down people before pouncing on them. People running away from the frenzied crowd in absolute panic. _

_"We'll have more here on Channel 5 news."_

"Fucking junkies" Santana shook her head. Everyone saw how bath salts made that one guy act all crazy, yet here we have multiple people obviously taking them. She would never understand some people. She sat and watched for twenty more minutes but the more she watched, the more that dark twisty feeling in her stomach grew. Santana shook her head, as if to clear the bad feeling away. It was just a bunch of crazy people doing crazy stuff it was nothing she would have to worry about. She was sure by tomorrow all of this would be sorted out and the news would be back to normal.

Brittany's mother got home around 6 and rushed to the kitchen in a whirlwind of activity as she hurried to put to a late dinner on the table.

"Brittany, how were the twins? They didn't cause you any trouble did they?" Her mom asked from the kitchen. Brittany shook her head even though she was all the way in the living room.

"No they were fine," Brittany picked up Andy from his blanket on the floor and carried him into the kitchen to place him in his high chair.

"Good," her mom smiled at her. "Brittany I've been meaning to talk to you. Your father has one of those business conventions out in Denver this weekend. He wanted me along so he didn't have to go to the obligatory formal dinner alone," her mother gave a little shake of her head at that. Brittany had heard her mom complain of how incredibly dull her father's insurance conventions were. "It's a little too late to hire a babysitter for that amount of time so I was hoping that you wouldn't mind watching the kids this weekend? I know usually we don't ask you to babysit for so long, but this convention sort of sprung up out of nowhere." Her mom looked at her searchingly.

"You don't have to if you don't want-" her mom started after Brittany stayed silent for a while.

"No, I'll do it," Brittany nodded.

"Great, now help me with dinner will ya?" Her mom tilted her head towards the refrigerator. Brittany just smiled and nodded.

Dinner was a noisy affair as always. Cooper had scored his first goal of the season tonight. Becca was thinking of joining the debate team. The twins were about to bubble over from excitement from the prospects of spending all tomorrow afternoon playing Viking Zombies 4 ("Are you sure you can take us Britt?" "Yeah of course I can"). Andy had mastered the art of spit bubbles. Her father was rambling about what a great convention it was going to be this weekend.

"Brittany, you sure you okay holding down the fort this weekend?" Brittany's dad asked the question innocently enough, but to Brittany it sounded like her was second guessing their decision to leave the lives of her brothers and sisters in her hands for so long. Brittany felt her resolve to babysit strengthen.

"Yeah dad, I got this."

"Alright honey. We'll drop Andy off at the Jefferson's in the morning before we leave, so just pick him up when you get home from school." Her dad turned back to her mother to continue in unfortunate detail about the wonderful world of car insurance conventions.

Brittany was washing the dishes this time while her mom dried and put them away.

"Oh my goodness! Karen, did you hear about this?" her dad called from the family room his voice rising in concern. "Jesus, this is unreal! What-" her father trailed off uncertainly.

"What happened?" her mother clearly picked up on how disturbed her father was. She dropped her drying towel on the counter and hurried into the family room. Brittany followed curiously.


	3. Tessellate

Chapter 2(Tessellate)

As soon as she walked through the door, Quinn could tell something was not quite right today. Everyone seemed to be absorbed in deep conversations, and while high school gossip was not something Quinn was unfamiliar with, this was noticeably different. People were talking in quite whispers with concerned frowns. There was no pointing or giggling, no chuckles or gasps, which would indicate a standard high school scandal. Quinn narrowed her eyes apprehensively. She would have to figure out what happened before first period. Luckily, she knew just who to ask.

Santana was standing next to her locker carefully applying lip gloss when Quinn made her way up to her.

"What's going on?" Quinn asked curtly.

"Well, good morning to you too Sunshine." Santana replied without even looking from her locker mirror. Quinn just rolled her eyes and let her question stand. "Don't tell me Ms. Shirley Temple herself doesn't keep up with current events." Quinn rolled her eyes again. She did that a lot around Santana.

"Come on Santana, you can do better than Shirley Temple."

"Hmm you know what, sixteen and pregnant, you're right." Santana chuckled at what Quinn guessed was here own cleverness.

"Are you going to tell me what's going on or not?" Santana sighed and finished applying her lip gloss.

"Well, since you haven't watched the news or read a newspaper in the last 24 hours I guess I'll clue you in. There has apparently been some crazy people attacking and eating people in some hick town in Maryland or something. A bunch of druggies if you ask me. People are starting to panic and talking about government conspiracies and shit." Santana rolls her eyes. "Bunch of idiots. If it was really a government conspiracy you think they would let it get out like this. Hell no! They would cover that shit up so well no one would have ever heard of freakin' Fredrick, Maryland. It's probably some new designer drug that makes bath salts look like your grandma's pain meds." Santana continued to rant about dumb people and where they could take their conspiracies while Quinn tried to process what Santana was telling her.

People eating other people? No, that was definitely not your standard high school gossip. Quinn was not quite sure where in Maryland this was, but she knew Maryland was pretty close to Ohio. While the news was startling and horrific Quinn couldn't help but agree with Santana. It couldn't be as bad as everyone was making it seem, could it?

"I even heard someone say it was contagious. Like seriously? Since when is the sudden urge to eat people a contagious thing. Oh hey Britt!"

Quinn turned around and sure enough Brittany was walking up to them. But she seemed off, well more off than usual, like she was anticipating the end of the world. Her face was marred by worry lines that weren't usually there. Santana seemed to sense it too.

"Hey Britt what's the matter?"

"Didn't you hear 'bout those people in Maryland?" Brittany looked like someone had told her God had cancelled all future rainbows, which might have been the end of the world as far as Brittney was concerned.

"Britt please don't tell me you're buying this crazy bullshit too? B, it's all just conspiracy theories. Those people probably just did some bad drugs. The police, or the government, or whatever will have this all sorted out soon. Don't worry ok. Those people will be fine." Santana slid her hand down Brittany's forearm and hand then effortlessly linked their pinkies. Quinn watched as most of the tension slid out of Brittany as Santana continued to offer reassuring words.

Quinn has been aware that Brittany and Santana have been more than friends since this summer. She had seen the two of them sneak away from a party together and everything else sort of fell into place. She was really surprised it took her that long to figure it out. Once she thought about it, it's too obvious. The long looks, lingering touches, the sexual tension around them is almost tangible. Last year, if Quinn had heard about this she would have probably gone apocalyptic. Her two best friend and fellow Cheerios, engaging in a homosexual relationship, it was social suicide; Quinn would not have tolerated it. But having a baby and being a social outcast changes you. Quinn has a more accepting outlook on life and put less stock in her social standings. Quinn had no problem with it now. She actually wished they would be upfront about it, if not with the whole school then at least with her. She wouldn't push it though; she understands what it means to have a secret that could change the way people look at you and how vulnerable it makes you.

"Hey, I heard that coach is in a complete and utter rage." Now this gets Quinn's undivided attention.

"What? Why?" Quinn knew that if coach was in a rage then the people closest to her would feel the brunt of it, and her position as co-captain put her right in the eye of the storm.

"Some freak stock market crash in the pharmaceutical sector lost her a great deal of money. Becky said she heard her on the phone with her financial advisor talking about cracking skulls." Santana looked uneasy. Quinn knew why. Santana was the other co-captain and if anyone's skull was going to get cracked it was going to be theirs.

"Maybe she's just going to take all her money away from those guys and move it somewhere else. Lord Tubbington has great financial advisors; maybe I could get him to help her." Brittany offered optimistically. Quinn doubted getting financial advice from even the best gurus would ease coach's current temper.

"Great, just what I need." Ever since Quinn got back on the Cheerios, due in no small part to Brittany and Santana begging coach to give her another chance, she had wondered why she did it. Why put up with the long, brutal afternoon practices and all the physical, verbal, and mental abuse again? Sure, Quinn was good at it. She got her spot back as co-captain in a few months after proving that even a pregnancy could not take away her God given talent as a Cheerio. But why do it? It was not fun, her grades where good enough to get her all the college scholarships she would need, and ever since last year social status has lost a bit of its appeal to her. Maybe it was the challenge of trying to appease a completely unappeasable woman, or maybe it was so she did not have to spend so much time at home, or maybe it had to do with pushing herself each day physically and mentally to do some of the most heart wrenching acrobatics while maintaining an overly cheerful smile. Whatever the reason, Quinn kept coming back for more.

"Well I have to go to class. I'll see you guys at practice." Quinn didn't need to say which one. She would see them at both.

Nowadays it didn't even seem like Quinn processed the school day drifting past. It was all a tangle of the same boring, repetitive classes with the same superficial, obnoxious people. Hardly any of it registered anymore. It didn't really feel like she woke up until glee in the afternoon. As outlandish as it sounds, glee was the best part of her day in more ways than one. She got to sing and dance to her hearts content. Quinn would never be a Rachel Berry level lover of the stage, but she did appreciate the opportunity to express herself through such a dynamic medium. Even if she didn't get as many solos as she should. She got to be in room full of people she considered real friends, not like the ones you get from Cheerios where they are either afraid of you or hate you, but people who liked you for being you. Glee was definitely awesome, but it had its drawbacks.

"Well it's obvious isn't it? It the apocalypse! All those people are the first of many to be turned into brain-dead, people eating, weirdoes! I saw a movie just like it"

The principal drawback of Glee was that no one in this room seemed to be able to keep their mouths shut about the latest school scandals. Usually, none of their talk bothered Quinn, but today as the reports of more and more of the cannibalistic mobs turned McKinley High into a conspiracy theory think tank, Quinn would have preferred to just be talking about music or dancing or Rachel Berry's 1st singing award or anything else that was not brain dead crazy people.

"Just because you saw a movie about it does not mean it's what's happening now, Puck. There are a million logical explanations for it, and none of them have to do with Armageddon. It could just be a really bad strain of the flu or something."

"Yeah, I'm with Tina. It's too boring to be the apocalypse, no action. No, if it was the apocalypse there would be earthquakes and tidal waves and all kinds of stuff. And we definitely would not still be at school. I personally would be in an underground safe house waiting out the worst of the natural disasters and then come out and search for survivors afterwards. "

"Not exactly what I was trying to say Artie, but-"

"Ok, ya'll just need to stop with all this end of the world stuff cuz its killin my vibe. I would just like to proceed with the regularly scheduled events for today. Mr. Schue can we please just move on to what the assignment for today is?"

"I'm glad you ask Mercedes!" Mr. Schue went to his handy-dandy whiteboard and wrote 'The Real You'. Quinn could almost feel Santana rolling her eyes and saw her reach for her nail file. "Who are you? In this constantly changing world, it stands to reason that we are constantly changing people, but at your very core who are you? Who do you want to be? Are those the same person? We'll cover this for the next few classes…" Quinn zoned out after that. Mr. Schue was a cool guy and all, but he was not going to win any charisma awards anytime soon. What he said did get Quinn thinking. She had changed a lot over the last year, but who did she want to be? Where did she want to go? How the hell was she going to make it out of Lima? It was all too deep to think about during glee.

"Excuse me, Mr. Schue. While I think this exercise is…quaint. Don't you think our time would be better spent going over our set list? Regionals are in three weeks and I think I speak for the whole club when I say we would rather get started early than have to do it all last minute, again." Rachel stared expectantly at Mr. Schue. Santana snickered next to her, and Quinn had to hide her own smile.

Mr. Schue cleared his throat and looked like quite a bit of the wind had been knocked out of his sail. "Well Rachel, if this goes well maybe we can use some of the songs you all come up with during regionals. Then it would be like killing two birds with one stone."

Glee went relatively quickly after that. They all split into groups and started running ideas by each other. Well Brittany, Santana, and Quinn just sat and talked about their weekend plans. Before Quinn knew it, Glee was over. Now Quinn got to face a raging Coach Sylvester. Fantastic.

"You are all the absolute lowest scum of the Earth! There is not a pebble of talent between all of you!"

Cheerios practice wasn't as bad as Quinn thought it was going to be. Coach was using much more colorful criticisms than usual and with the use of her megaphone they were a bit louder than was comfortable for the human eardrum, and she had grumbled a few words about not trusting the government with your money and made them do a few extra laps up the bleachers, but it was not the complete meltdown Quinn was expecting. Cheerios practice ended with everyone left relatively unscathed, but Quinn decided to hurry out of the locker room in case that changed.

"Hey Quinn," Brittany called to her in the parking lot, "can you give me a ride home. I promised the twins I would take them to the arcade to play Viking Zombies and it would be way faster to drive than to walk." Brittany gave her an appreciative smile, like she already knew Quinn would give her a ride.

"Of course I will, B." Quinn smiled back because it was Brittany. "Do you want me to drive you all to the arcade too? "

"That would be great! Hey and then maybe we can have a sleepover! And we can talk about our glee assignment and eat popcorn and Lord Tubbington can show you his new bonnet!" Brittany seemed to be bouncing instead of walking now. "I mean if you want to."

Quinn laughed and nodded her head. "Sounds like a good time. I'm in." Brittany flounced along to Quinn's car, clearly excited.

As they got closer to her car Quinn noticed someone was sitting on the hood of her red Beetle. She was about to yell at this joker to get the hell off her car when she realized who it was. She rolled her eyes instead. "Santana what are you doing?"

"Getting a ride from you obviously, Fabray." Santana looked at her like she should have already known this information.

"Where's your car?"

"Some dumb cop towed it yesterday because I parked it in a fire truck lane. It is not my fault that Starbucks did not have the foresight to get enough parking spaces put in their parking lot. I needs my coffee in the morning otherwise Auntie Snix is out all day. My dad said he would get it when he got back from his business trip." Quinn shook her head in disbelief. She shouldn't have asked.

"Whatever, let's go." Quinn slid into the driver's seat before adjusting her rearview mirror. She rolled her eyes when Santana got in the back to sit next to Brittany. "No funny business back there you two," Quinn said in her stern voice.

Santana scoffed and Brittany giggled and Quinn threw the car in drive.

Chett Murphy was not having a good day; scratch that, Chett Murphy was not having a good life. When he was younger, Chett had dreams of getting out of this small Ohio town and playing major league baseball. He had a good shot at it too. If not the major leagues then he could at least have had a career in the minor leagues. But his dreams had all come crashing down around him when he got in a car accident right before his senior year of high school. He had messed up his legs real bad. The doctors told him that he should be grateful, he was alive and with a few years of physical therapy he was able to walk just as good as before. Chett knew they were right, he should be happy for the life he had, but he could not help the regret and resentment that bubbled up whenever he looked around and saw that he was still in the same place with the same people with his dreams far out of reach. To top it all off, his girlfriend of two years had decided she would rather be sleeping with some big shot used car dealer than a washed up baseball player working a dead-end job at the local CountryMart. He really didn't see how it could get much worse.

Chett stumbled out of his favorite bar towards his car, grumbling about good for nothing used car salesmen. He should have gotten a ride; with his luck he would get pulled over. He rustled though the pockets of his faded jeans, searching for his ever elusive keys. He pushed his long blonde hair out of his eyes as he tried digging through the pockets of his lucky Pittsburgh Pirates jacket. He cursed as his keys fell out of his pocket onto the ground. He bent down slowly, careful to pick them up.

The sound of a branch breaking rang through the night, echoing in the silence. Chett's eyes snapped to the group of trees and bushes at the edge of the bar parking lot. Chett became suddenly aware of how empty and dark the parking lot was. His eyes scanned the darkness suspiciously. He stood up slowly, eyes still staring down the inky blackness. It was probably a raccoon or something. Chett turned away walking the opposite direction, towards the lone car remaining on the parking lot. Before he could take two steps, a growling gurgling sound came from the trees.

"Ey, somebodies there?" Chett slurred turning towards the trees. The wind rustled the leaves of the trees as if to answer him. Chett took a step towards the trees. He could feel eyes watching. "Look, if somebodies there you should come on out." His speech wasn't the clearest right now but he was sure it was understandable. Chett sighed. Why was he acting like some scarred little boy? He walked straight over to the patch of trees and stared harder. The night stilled.

Out of the darkness a face twisted in a mindless rage rushed out at him. Chett feebly bashed the outstretched arms away from his face, but alcohol and shock slowed down his limbs. Before he could cry out the brute was on him. Weeping sores from the thing's arms smeared dark red all over Chett's lucky Pittsburgh Pirate jacket. Chett reached out trying to push away the things face with his hands, but his fingers slipped in the things mouth and bloody teeth clamped down on them. This time Chett did cry out. Before he was able to put his other hand up, the thing was on him scratching and biting until Chett Murphy's cries fell silent.


	4. Look Out Young Son

Chapter 3(Look out Young Son)

Santana sat in her living room enjoying her bowl of sugary cereal. Yesterday had been fun, more fun than Santana would have anticipated. After leaving school with Quinn and Brittany, they swung by the elementary school to pick up the twins to take them to the arcade. The twins politely greeted Quinn and Santana and thanked Quinn for the ride before proceeding to literally bounce up and down in their seats, jingling with the sound of quarters in their pockets, and talked non-stop to the arcade. Santana thought that the two 9 year-olds were exceedingly cute but she wanted to kill them by the time they got to the arcade so the twins weren't the only ones anxious to get out of the car. It had been a little while since Santana had been inside the arcade. In middle school it had been a favorite hang- out of hers because it was the perfect place to catch the eye of all the hottest middle school guys with little competition from other middle school girls. They were only supposed to stay a few minutes to make sure Sam and Alex were ok, but they ended up staying a few hours when Brittney saw some robot unicorn game they had. Santana admittedly got in on the gaming, schooling Quinn at some DDR and then Resident Evil. They ended up having to be dragged out by Alex and Sam who had been very disappointed by their own game.

"The graphics haven't even improved since the last one." Alex lamented.

"And the plot was really subpar." Sam had grumbled.

Quinn and Brittney had decided to spend the night over at Santana's, Quinn saying her house was experiencing it's very own Cold War and she did not want to be around and Brittney saying that she would have to spend all her time babysitting this weekend and wanted some time away. They watched a few movies and painted each other's nails and gossiped and just enjoyed each other's company, it all reminded Santana of how they used to be in middle school before popularity and social status was their main concern. Santana had been the first one up and dressed for school and was waiting for the other two to join her. She hadn't really been paying attention to the television, she was more concerned with her bowl of delicious sugary goodness, but a significant change in the voice of the news anchors voice caught her attention.

_"-has announced a quarantine around the town of Fredrick, Maryland. CDC officials have commented that the previously thought mob of belligerents are actually mobs or carriers for what scientist believe is a new strain of the viral infection rabies. The CDC is warning citizens in nearby areas to stay indoors as much as possible as this new strain's contagiousness has not yet been fully realized and-"_

"Good morning, Santana." Santana jumped as familiar arms wrapped around her shoulders. "Why are you so jumpy?" Blue eyes looked at her quizzically.

"Sorry Brittney. It's just this damn news report. Those people they thought were just crazy turned out to be crazy and sick. They put the whole town under quarantine. It's some pretty crazy stuff." Santana looked back towards the television.

"Well the government has got it under control, right? I mean, they said they quarantined it and scientist will be trying to find a cure. Maybe it will all be ok." Brittany tried to sound optimistic, but Santana could tell she was more than a bit concerned as well. Santana reached for the remote and turned the television off.

"Of course it'll all be okay Britt. Like I said yesterday, people like to blow stuff out of proportion," Honestly, the tense feeling she woke up with two days ago had only intensified which could only mean bad things, but Santana would rather not worry Brittany. "Where is Quinn?"

"Still in the shower," Brittney walked around the couch and sat down next to Santana.

"Well, while she's still occupied maybe we can get our mack on a little," Santana wiggled her eyebrows suggestively and Brittney giggled.

Santana really did enjoy having Quinn hanging out with them again especially now that she seemed to not have as big of a stick up her ass, but it was starting to throw off her and Brittany's more intimate endeavors. By the time Quinn did come down, Santana was readjusting her skirt and Brittany was retying her hair up into a ponytail.

"You guys ready to go," Quinn questioned.

"Seriously, Octomom, we've been ready for half an hour," Santana snarked. Quinn just rolled her eyes and walked out of the living room towards the front door.

"Be nice." Brittany swatted at Santana shoulder and stood up to follow Quinn out the door.

"That was me being nice," Santana stood, grabbed her book bag and sauntered out the door.

More than once over the course of the school day, Santana contemplated whether or not it was a smart idea to come to school at all today. First off, nearly a quarter of the William McKinley High population had indeed not shown up. The other three fourths seemed to be in a panic over the recent developments of the quarantine in Maryland.

"I heard the government is sending in the military to kill everyone in the whole town."

"It's only a matter of time before Ohio is getting quarantined as well."

"Will we still have school?"

"Those people can't be that sick, can they?"

"It took them too long the quarantine won't work."

Saying that the talk was starting to concern Santana was an understatement. Most of the talk was completely idiotic, but Santana could not shake the feeling that this was the beginning of something bad. She felt a tight knot of panic settle in the pit of her stomach and her physic Mexican third eye was never wrong.

The school day seemed to drag on. No one could concentrate; even teachers were gossiping in the halls. Mr. Schue's glee assignment was forsaken for talk of conspiracies or the denial thereof. Coach Sylvester told them to do laps like they were running from the rabies infested people of Fredrick, Maryland. Santana couldn't wait to get home.

She burst through her front door, threw down her book bag, and nearly ran to the living room to turn on the news.

_"-update. The current quarantine in Maryland has been expanded to include all of Fredrick County, Carroll County, and Howard County in Maryland and Addams County and Franklin County in Pennsylvania. This is a reminder to people in those counties and adjacent counties to please stay indoors as much as possible. Do not let a person infected by the virus make any contact with you or loved ones. The virus makes infected unpredictable and very dangerous."_

This was not good. Santana picked up her phone and went to the internet to search for videos of the infected. There were plenty of them to choose from. She watched as twisted, snarling faces ran after screaming crowds of people, tackling panicked bodies, scratching and biting. Santana felt sick. She closed the videos, and her mind started running a hundred miles a minute.

She had to call her parents and make sure they were okay. She had to tell them to get home. She had to call Brittany and tell her to stay inside. She had to do something.

Santana bounded upstairs, taking them two at a time. She passed her own door for the one at the end of the hall, her father's office. She switched on the light and walked to the desk and sat in her father's plush leather chair. She reached for the key she knew would be taped under the seat of the chair and opened the lock on the desk's bottom draw. In it was a bunch of very confidential patient papers which Santana threw out of the drawer to reveal the silver gleam of her father's Berretta M9 pistol. She grabbed the pistol and the magazine next to it. She made sure the gun was on safe before loading the magazine and shoving the pistol in the back of her skirt waistband. She had a lot of things to do. Her psychic Mexican Third eye was never wrong.

Brittany threw open her front door with a grateful sigh. It was so good to be home and away from all the panic at school. The day had been a beehive of emotion. Everyone was so nervous and scared by the news of this crazy virus. Reports seemed to get worse by the hour. More towns and counties put under quarantine. By the end of the school day Maryland had declared martial law, the virus spreading like wildfire through the cities. Videos of soldiers armed with masks and guns flooding towns had been the subject of discussion every period. The worse news is that these quarantines had started to inch closer and closer to Lima. A great number of students did not show up to school today.

Brittany could feel her insides twisting in panic. Why hadn't some smart person figured out how to stop this disease? I mean it seemed urgent enough to warrant all the scientists focusing on it. She really wished her parents were here right now. Things were getting scary fast and she wasn't quite sure what to do or how to take care of her brothers and sisters.

Well to start with she should probably get her youngest brother from the neighbor's house, and then she should wait for her other siblings to get home. Cooper was still at soccer practice and Becca and the twins should be on the bus home. But what to do when they all got here? They would all be expecting her to do something or say something. Maybe they should all just sit in the basement like in a tornado. Or was that an Earthquake? But in a fire they were supposed to leave the house. Why aren't there emergency instructions for a viral outbreak? Brittany could feel the deep wave of fear rising. How was she going to keep her siblings safe? She couldn't even keep her safe. She couldn't –

The unsettling thoughts were cut off by the shrill cry of the house phone. Brittany realized she was still in the entryway with her back against the door. She darted to her right, towards the small living room end table that held the Pierces' household phone. She stared down at the caller ID for a second before a familiar name appeared on the telephone display. She snatched up the phone.

"Hey, Dad I'm so glad you called! I can't–" Brittany's panicked ramble was interrupted by her father's voice.

"Brittany, I need you to listen to me." Brittany pushed her lips together; picking up on her father's harried tones. "I need you to get Andy from Mrs. Jefferson's house. Are Becca and the twins home yet?"

"No, they're not home yet. But Dad I–"

"Brittany as soon as they get home I need you to lock the doors okay? Don't let anyone in. Even if they say they need help. And don't let any of the kids leave okay? It's not safe." Her father sighed and Brittany could picture him running his hand through the top of his hair. "Brittany, this infection stuff is more serious than we thought. It's all over the news and the government doesn't know what's happening. Jesus, if your mother and I knew it was so bad we would have never–" Her dad sighed again, this time heavier. "There is word that Lima might be among the next towns quarantined. We are going to try and get home as quickly as we can," Brittany could feel her throat tighten and her stomach roil. The wave of fear was consuming her. It felt like she couldn't breathe. "Brittany in our closet, on the top shelf, there is a small safe locked box. I need you to get it. The code to open it is 3-0-4-9-5. Got that? 3-0-4-9-5. Repeat it back."

"3-0-4-9-5,"Brittany repeated.

"There is a gun inside," Brittany could feel her eyes widen at the words.

"Dad, I can't-"

"You can Brittany. You can do this. Your mother and I need you to do this, and we both know you can. We left you in charge because we knew you could take care of your brothers and sisters. You've always been a smart kid and we trust you okay. Now we need you to take charge okay?"

"Yeah Dad, I can do it." Brittany's not sure when her eyes started to water.

"We love you Britt and we'll try to be home as soon as we can." Her father sounded so sure. Brittany knew that her parents would move the Earth to get back here. It reassured her.

"I love you both too." The phone clicked signifying the call was over, but Brittany kept the phone next to her ear hoping her father's voice would come back.


End file.
